Great Park board warns of proposals' costs

Orange County Great Park board chairman Beth Krom holds up letters from the public that she says are mostly against the elimination of four of the nine board positions during a special meeting of the board at Irvine City Hall on Monday. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Up for a vote

Three Great Park-related proposals are on today's Irvine City Council agenda:

1. Eliminate all four appointed director positions on the Great Park board, leaving the five elected council positions.

3. Hire an auditor to conduct a forensic audit of the park's development since 2005.

If you go:

5 p.m. at Irvine City Hall, 1 Civic Center Plaza, Irvine.

IRVINE – Directors of the Orange County Great Park Corp.'s board, minus three, offered a bleak vision Monday of the park's future if Irvine's new political majority gets its way.

Philanthropic support and sponsorships outside Irvine? Don't count on it, several board members said.

Lobbying legislative leaders to develop a new financing tool with redevelopment gone, among other things? Not going to happen without a lobbyist, said Christopher Townsend of Townsend Public Affairs Inc., whose contract could be terminated today.

The ability to attract more than 300,000 people over 10 days to a massive alternative-energy expo when the Great Park hosts the U.S. Solar Decathlon in October? Not likely if the park doesn't have a marketing contract with Forde & Mollrich, which is also up for elimination, Councilman Larry Agran said.

"We're in the middle of brain surgery. You don't dismiss the brain surgeon," he said of Forde & Mollrich and other consultants that are planning the event.

The three-person political majority in Irvine since the November election – Mayor Steven Choi, Councilman Jeff Lalloway and Councilwoman Christina Shea – proposed eliminating the four appointed director positions from the Great Park's board, leaving just the elected council, terminating contracts with Forde & Mollrich and Townsend Public Affairs Inc. to save money, and spending up to $250,000 on a forensic audit.

None attended Monday's special meeting of the board.

While the board met, returning Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer vowed to float a new referendum that would ask voters if they want the county to take control of the park's development if Choi, Lalloway and Shea can't turn it around in the next year or so.

Spitzer made the comments during a speech at his swearing in Monday, at which he said the city squandered more than $220 million and allowed the park to stagnate for a decade.

Facing a vote at today's Irvine City Council meeting to cut their ranks, the board directors defended their roles Monday – as did two businessmen at risk of losing their contracts – and criticized the three absent directors for the timing of their proposals, introduced in memos sent late New Year's Eve.

Director and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who left early to attend his city's council meeting, asked where the proposal to change the board's makeup to one of just the City Council was during Irvine's election.

"I would submit it was nowhere," he said, challenging an assertion that the voters of Irvine have asked for the changes.

Of 25 emails and faxed letters sent to City Hall before the board meeting, one supported the proposal to eliminate appointed members from the board.

Irvine Councilwoman and chair of the park board Beth Krom also read from a letter signed by the park's designer, Ken Smith.

"As master designer of the Great Park, it breaks my heart to see the broad vision of a new park of the 21stcentury diminished in this way," Smith wrote.

The board of five voted unanimously 5-0, with Pulido, Choi, Shea and Lalloway absent, to oppose the proposals to eliminate the appointed board positions and the outside public relations and lobbying contracts. At Krom's urging, the board opted not to vote on Shea's proposal for a forensic audit because members weren't entirely clear about what Shea was proposing.

After the meeting, Agran had some hope that the proposals may not be a slam dunk.

Related Links

Orange County Great Park board chairman Beth Krom holds up letters from the public that she says are mostly against the elimination of four of the nine board positions during a special meeting of the board at Irvine City Hall on Monday. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Orange County Great Park board member Bill Kogerman, left, speaks during a special meeting of the board as fellow board members Michael Pinto, Beth Krom and Walkie Ray, from left, listen at Irvine City Hall on Monday. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Orange County Great Park board member Miguel Pulido addresses a special meeting of the board of directors as Larry Agran listens at Irvine City Hall on Monday. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Orange County Great Park board members Miguel Pulido and Larry Agran talk before a special meeting of the board at Irvine City Hall on Monday. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Orange County Great Park board members Bill Kogerman, Michael Pinto, Beth Krom, Walkie Ray, Larry Agran and Miguel Pulido, from left, talk during a special meeting of the board at Irvine City Hall on Monday. Members Jeffrey Lalloway, Christina Shea and Steven Choi were absent. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Orange County Great Park board chairman Beth Krom addresses a special meeting of the board as Michael Pinto, left, and Walkie Ray listen at Irvine City Hall on Monday. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Irvine resident Susan Sayre tells the Great Park board she is against eliminating four of the nine board positions during a special meeting of the board of directors at Irvine City Hall on Monday. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Orange County Great Park board member Larry Agran, right, speaks during a special meeting of the board at Irvine City Hall on Monday. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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